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Local 2nd grader receives grant to fight childhood hunger on Global Youth Service Day 2014

May2014_YouthServiceDayFeat1 First to third grade students at Great River School, 1326 Energy Park Dr., gather for a group photo during the Global Youth Service Day Event. Second grader Johan Rafael (Rafa) Bastida-Rickmyer applied for and received a grant through Youth Service America for the second year in a row to address the issues of childhood hunger.[/caption]

Johan Rafael (Rafa) Bastida-Rickmyer, a 2nd grader from Great River School (1326 Energy Park Dr.), was awarded a Sodexo Foundation Youth Grant through Youth Service America. The grant supported Bastida-Rickmyer’s efforts in leading a community service project on Global Youth Service Day 2014 that addressed

the issues of childhood hunger. Great River is an urban Montessori serving children in 1st - 12th grade.

Rafa’s classroom (28 students from 1-3rd grade) spent the two weeks in April presenting to the upper classes the statistics on childhood hunger and how this community could help do something about it. Their hard work culminated with a field trip to Merrick Community Services in Maplewood where they were able to deliver the food, weight, sort and present to the clients of Merrick extra food for the week.

Merrick Community Services serves over 150 families a week. The children engaged the smaller children waiting with their parents to help distribute the groceries. Rafa is not new to this work. This is his second year winning the grant. Last year they delivered over 400 pounds to this community.

Courtney Roessler, the administrator of the food shelf, said, “We were so pleased with how willing these children were to just dig in and do whatever job it was they were asked to do.” With their increased advertising and decorated custom t-shirts, they were able to donate over 600 pounds of food this year. The bags streamed on and took a good chunk of time loading onto the bus and into the shelter. Not even the rain could dampen the lightened spirits of both the children and the recipients.

May2014_YouthServiceDay2 28 students in grades 1-3 from Great River School donated over 600 pounds of food to the Merrick Community Services Food Shelf. They collected, packed and delivered the food to observe Global Youth Service Day 2014.[/caption]

“As communities are challenged by the reduction in public resources, it makes our vision of a hunger-free America more difficult to attain,” said Robert A. Stern, chair, Sodexo Foundation. “Each Sodexo Foundation Youth Grantee is doing their part to tackle an issue that directly affects one in five of their peers. It will be through their actions and ingenuity that we will one day see an end to childhood hunger in America.”

All in all it was a great event. The children worked up an appetite and their hunger created a perfect opportunity for a learning moment filled with compassion and empathy. “Your hunger is easily solved with the lunch you brought today. These people live with hunger more often than they should. And this works helps ease that pain,” said main teacher Erik Akre and aide Jenny Thompson. The children were accompanied by their teachers and volunteers from the community.

YSA (Youth Service America) improves communities by increasing the number and diversity of young people, ages 5 to 25, serving in substantive roles. Through campaigns, grant programs, resource development and training opportunities, YSA promotes a global culture of engaged youth committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership and achievement. As a campaign of YSA and the largest service event in the world, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day of the year through service, and is held in more than 135 countries on six continents. For more information on YSA, visit www.YSA.org and www.GYSD.org.

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